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When done right, communication can be transformative. It allows people to tell their stories and bring to life people’s aspirations. If used to build rather than destroy, communication can help usher a future where everyone’s voices are heard. Communication has the potential to effect change, in that it gives you the tools to change your trajectory and control your narrative.
This transformative potential of communication is nowhere more evident than in the work of Sarah Wilcox, who uses her storytelling abilities to help address Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander issues. Sarah currently works as the Digital Communications Manager at the Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre (TAC), where she manages their social media channels and is currently developing internal communication protocols and supports campaigns.
Before joining TAC, Sarah worked in a lot of government and private agencies, where she honed her communications and engagement skills. However, Sarah said she spent those years honing her skillset because eventually, she wanted to serve her people and give back to her community.
“I’m a Palawa woman. I’m a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman. I felt that working in the public sector for most of my life, it’s given me some great opportunities and training, mentorship and experiences so that I could now add value hopefully to my community and to support them, connect them, and elevate the voices of the Palaua people across Lutruwita, Tasmania,” Sarah told Comms Room in an interview.
Sarah’s years with various government agencies taught her the ins-and-outs of government work as a communicator, where the work is undervalued but highly taxing. Sarah said one of the biggest challenges to working as a communicator in government agencies is “demonstrating the value of our experience and expertise and negotiating and influencing that our advice is right and getting people to go along with it.”
The way government decides on things doesn’t help either. This is most prevalent in the federal level, where getting approvals on everything from budgets to statements is a daunting process full of inefficiency. By the time a project comes through, it’s not uncommon to see a version far from the spirit of the original proposal.
That being said, not all is doom and gloom when it comes to government work. Having worked in both state and local government agencies, Sarah said it’s often easier to control your message and navigate your way as a communicator in the local level.
Sarah said there’s less red tape in the local level, and she feels more able to exert her influence over the end-message and how it needs to be shared to the public.
“In state government, there’s so many more levels, there’s so many more political influences that it’s more difficult to demonstrate the value of communicating in a certain way, in a certain language, and in certain channels,” Sarah said.
“There are some state government departments that you have multiple ministers that oversee that. Which means you’ve got to go through multiple advisors, which means you’ve got to go through multiple secretaries and deputy secretaries, and CEOS and general managers. It’s much more difficult in a state government context.”
These challenges, however, did not make Sarah lose her appetite for serving the people. If she was truly engaging with the people, communicating and representing them, she knew she was serving her purpose.
“The way that I’ve navigated that in my role that I had in state government was to ensure that the process, the communication and engagement processes that I’ve carried out, were with the people. We were representing our own engagement processes, so we were there on the ground, talking to the people, communicating with them, getting their feedback, and we were able to accurately represent their voices,” Sarah said.
With all the challenges involved in being a government communicator, you would think Sarah has enough on her plate. But when asked about the biggest challenge that communicators in general face today, Sarah had a different answer.
Sarah said the biggest problem that they’re combating right now is misinformation, especially in the age of the internet, where it’s more difficult to keep people accountable for what they say online.
“I think that the Dunalley bushfires here have shown is that disinformation can actually cause harm. So, we really got to be on the ball, understanding where our communities are, who they’re talking to, where the online groups are, and making sure that we’re involved with those so that we can jump on and dispel any misinformation that’s out there, particularly in an emergency condition,” Sarah said.
Despite the difficulties that come with the job, Sarah says she forges on because she loves her people.
“I love my people. I love connecting people. I love elevating people’s stories their achievements, their successes. Being able to represent who we are as a people. I think this new role that I’ve been able to take on has been… I’ve been working all my life to this role and to this part of my career so that I can help my community get their voices heard,” Sarah said.
She also shared her long-term goal, which is not to win any accolades or to earn some big promotion. Instead, she said she wants to encourage more of her people to get into communications.
“I’m hoping that I will have built up a few more aboriginal people into wanting to join the communications and engagement profession because at the moment I’m the only one in Lutruwita, Tasmania. So I’d love to try and build up a bit of cohort of communications professionals.”
“And also, you know, lending a bit of what I’ve learned and from the incredible people I’ve learnt from over the years, to Aboriginal and Torres-Strait Island organisations across the nation. Because communications, I think we can all get behind this, isn’t always seen as a valued profession. “
Sarah will be one of the speakers at the upcoming Public Sector Comms Week. Catch her and other speakers by securing your ticket today.
Paulo Rizal is a content producer for Comms Room. He writes content around popular media, journalism, social media, and more.
